Planning for the long term in business is impossible unless you’re a fortune teller. There are simply too many factors outside of your control, including the economy, competition, customers, and market conditions. You feel in control of things you can’t control when you write a plan.
Why don’t we just refer to plans as guesses? Start using the terms “business guesses,” “financial guesses,” and “strategic guesses” to describe your company plans, financial plans, and strategic plans, respectively. You no longer need to worry so much about them. Simply said, they aren’t worth the anxiety.
You enter a dangerous area when you transform educated assumptions into plans. Plans allow the past to dictate the present. You have blinders on. Because that’s where we said we were going, this is where we’re going. And that’s the issue: Improvisations are incompatible with plans.
Additionally, you must be able to improvise. You must be able to seize chances as they present themselves. We’re going in a new route because that is what makes sense right now, you need to say at times.
Long-term plans’ timing is also messed up. The majority of your knowledge comes to you during action, not before. But when should a plan be written? Usually, it happens before you even start. A major decision should never be made at that time.
This is not to mean that you shouldn’t consider the future or how you might overcome impending challenges, though. That exercise is beneficial. Just don’t feel compelled to record it or to think endlessly about it. Writing a comprehensive plan will certainly prompt you to review it. Plans that are more than a few pages simply become a fossil in your file cabinet.
Give up trying to guess. Make your decision for this week, not for the entire year. Decide what is most crucial, then focus on that. Make decisions as you are about to perform an action, not in advance.
You can just wing it. Just board the aircraft and depart. Once you get there, you can purchase a finer clothing, shaving cream, and a toothbrush.
Without a strategy, working might be intimidating. Even worse is blindly following a plan with no connection to reality.
